DALLAS – The days of general managers strutting around baseball’s annual winter meetings like the big shots they once were are long gone.

For years, the agents have been the big shots of the winter meetings. They draw the biggest crowd of reporters. They, with the blessings of their clients, swing the balance of power in baseball.

Most general managers will show up nonetheless to talk trade and bargain with the agents of the game’s top free agents.

Scott Boras, the game’s most powerful agent, Jeff Moorad, who isn’t far behind, and Mark Rodgers, who maintains a lower profile, will be the three most powerful men at the Anatole Hotel this weekend.

The meetings convene today and stretch into Tuesday. Considering the mother of all professional sports work stoppages could be on the horizon, after the completion of the 2001 season, these winter meetings could be the last for a long while.

Major league executives alternately will bemoan the escalation of player salaries and lobby their owners to approve record contracts throughout the weekend and into next week.

Boras represents Mariners shortstop Alex Rodriguez who will soon become baseball’s highest-paid player. This should come as no surprise since he is the game’s best player.

Moorad, who represents Indians sluggler Manny Ramirez, appears content to wait until A-Rod finds a home before he stokes the embers of the bidding bonfire for his client.

Rodgers has the luxury of sitting back and listening to offers for Mets left-hander Mike Hampton, the only No. 1 starter left on the market in the wake of Mike Mussina’s signing with the Yankees.

If not for the availability of the three superstar free agents, Cubs slugger Slammin’ Sammy Sosa would be the center of attention the way he was for much of the summer, when the Cubs talked trade but didn’t get blown away by offers.

Sosa has whined about the lack of a contract extension and the Cubs, wise to the reality that the only way to reverse losing is to build a pitching staff, will listen to offers for Sosa.

Look for the Mets, relatively quiet this winter, to be in the middle of all the major action. Steve Phillips, as he showed last winter by making a spur-of-the-moment trade for Ken Griffey Jr., which was nixed by the player, believes in exploring all possibilities.

The Mets’ top priority at the moment is to sign Hampton. Failing that, they could look to fortify their offense.

Many industry insiders believe the Mets have not counted themselves out of the A-Rod sweepstakes, despite a public stance of non-interest. Others believe that the will of the shortstop is to play in New York, where he can receive the attention his rare skills merit.

Similarly, nobody would be shocked if Ramirez remained in Cleveland, despite the apparent breakdown of talks.

Ramirez, via free agency, or Sosa, via trade, remain possibilities for the Mets should they fail to land Rodriguez or Hampton.

Even if the three major free agents don’t find new homes during the winter meetings, general managers should be able to break the gridlock to an extent by making trades.

A’s general manager Billy Beane will be active and has attractive trade bait in left-handed hitting outfielder Ben Grieve, the former American League Rookie of the Year.

Expect Beane to inquire about the Mets’ interest in Grieve, who could add power to the Mets’ punchless outfield and balance to the right-leaning lineup.

David Wells is the biggest name (and frame) among pitchers that is expected to surface in trade talks in the posh suites rented by general managers at the expense of ticket holders who face price increases on an annual basis.

The Indians tried to pry Wells from the Blue Jays during last month’s general manager’s meetings and are expected to resume those efforts. The Indians discussed trading Dave Burba and Roberto Alomar for Raul Mondesi and Wells. With left-handers Wells and Finley, both fans of the Stadium, in their rotation the Indians would pose the most serious threat to a Yankee’ title run, which stands at three in a row.